Laura McLane and Mike Betts -Purified human CD8 T-cells were stained with a-T-bet (green), a-Lamin A (pink), and DAPI (blue) and imaged on a multilaser-based spinning disk confocal microscope (Zeiss). T-bet can be localized to both the nuclear and cytoplasmic compartments of specific subsets of human CD8 T-cells.

3D image of the inflamed meningeal membrane of a CX3CR1-GFP reporter mouse infected with Toxoplasma gondii. The dura mater that surrounds the brain is blue, blood vessels are labeled red and microglia and macrophages are green. Contributors for image are ChristophKonradt and Chris Hunter.

In continuing coverage, ABC 30 in Fresno, Calif., reported on a clinical trial at the Abramson Cancer Center investigating the use of vitamin D in combination with chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer patients. This first in-human trial is being led by Jeffrey A. Drebin, MD, PhD, chair of Surgery, and Peter O’Dwyer, MD, a professor of Hematology/Oncology, and is funded by the Stand Up to Cancer initiative.

Results from a clinical trial investigating a new T cell receptor therapy demonstrated a response in 80 percent of multiple myeloma patients after undergoing autologous stem cell transplants, according to a new study from Abramson Cancer Center researchers published in Nature Medicine, reports WHYY Radio and Fiercebiotech. This time, the team, led by Carl June, MD, a professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Edward Stadtmauer, MD, a professor of Medicine and section chief of Hematologic Malignancies, modified T cells to attack cancer cells expressing NY-ESO-1, an antigen found in nearly 60 percent of multiple myelomas. Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, Medical Daily, and BioScience also covered the study.

Penn Medicine heart transplant patient, Derek Fitzgerald, completed the final leg of his cross country bike tour to raise money and awareness for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, stopping through Penn yesterday for a ceremony featuring words from Mariell Jessup, MD, an associate chief of clinical affairs in the division of Cardiology and medical director of the Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center and Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD, director of the Abramson Cancer Center. Derek and his team finished is his 44-day journey yesterday afternoon in Avalon, NJ. This was covered by CBS3, WIP Sports Radio and NBC10.

Results from a clinical trial investigating a new T cell receptor (TCR) therapy that uses a person’s own immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells demonstrated a clinical response in 80 percent of multiple myeloma patients with advanced disease after undergoing autologous stem cell transplants (ASCT). The results of the study were published this week in the journal Nature Medicine from researchers at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center, including senior author Carl H. June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of Translational Research in the ACC, the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc (Adaptimmune).

HealthDay (via Doctors Lounge) reports that certain electrocardiographic measures may improve prediction of cardiovascular death in patients with chronic kidney disease, according to a study led by Rajat Deo, MD, an assistant professor of Medicine, and published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Medscape and HealthManagement.org also covered the study.

In continuing coverage, TCTMD reports on the FDA's recent approval of Entresto for the treatment of heart failure. Mariell Jessup, MD, associate chief of clinical affairs in the division of Cardiology and medical director of the Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center, says that among the reasons the approval is important is that "the success of this drug has seemingly opened the floodgates of research into other potential heart failure drug investigation, making it a very exciting next chapter in the heart failure arena."

Medpage Today reports that the recent FDA approval of heart failure drug Entresto and the pending approval of two PCSK9 inhibitors this summer has reinvigorated the search for further advances in cardiology. "Already there has been a renewed sense of interest and excitement from many pharmaceutical companies taking another look at heart failure therapy," said Mariell Jessup, MD, associate chief of clinical affairs in the division of Cardiology and medical director of the Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center.

The first drug to demonstrate a mortality benefit when compared with enalapril for heart failure -- Entresto, previously known as LCZ696 -- received FDA approval Tuesday, according to Medpage Today. Cardiologists, including Mariell Jessup, MD, associate chief of clinical affairs in the division of Cardiology and medical director of the Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center, are calling it a potential game changer because "it represents a new class of drug, which may have a meaningful impact on the trajectory of disease in many patients."

A Food and Drug Administration advisory group recommended in June that the agency approve a new drug, Praluent, from Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. If approved, it will be the first in a new class of blockbuster medicines that sharply lower levels of cholesterol, the leading cause of heart disease. But groundbreaking specialty drugs often come with a huge price tag. "If these drugs are really given to the number of people who are candidates for them, the cost will be astronomical," Daniel J. Rader, MD, chair of the department of Genetics and director of the Preventive Cardiovascular Program, told U.S. News & World Report.

David Weiner, PhD, a professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, comments in The Scientist about continuing research after retirement. Weiner hosted retired clinical dermatologist Henry Maguire as a full-time postdoc in his lab from 1997 to 2011. In retirement, Maguire's expertise was an invaluable asset to the gourp, Weiner says. "He always challenged us: What is the importance of this work? What is the point of doing this? He made things kind of slow down, took you out of the rat race, and gave you time to think about things in an elegant and important way."

HemOnc Today reports on a new study from Abramson Cancer Center researchers that found that older patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplants who received stem cells from younger, unrelated donors with higher numbers of so-called killer T cells (CD8 cells) had significantly reduced risk of disease relapse and improved survival. The study, co-authored by David Porter, MD, director of Blood and Marrow Translpantation in the ACC, was published in the JOurnal of Clinical Oncology.

James Hoxie, MD, director of the Penn Center for AIDS Research, was featured in a Hellio.com video talking about the advances in HIV, including gene therapy technology that kept the virus at bay in some patients taken off medications. "Those of us in the field, especially those of us who have been in it since the begining, when HIV was a new disease, feel empowered by what we've accoplished, " Hoxie said. "That can only make us hopeful for what is ahead."

On June 10, an FDA advisory panel voted 11-4 in favor of approving PCSK9 inhibitor evolocumab (Repatha), with most panelists saying they saw no need to wait for the ongoing cardiovascular outcomes trial data. Daniel Rader, MD, director of preventive cardiology, predicted that rigorous documentation of statin intolerance would be required for insurance coverage in the clinic, he told MedPage Today.

Cancer Immunotherapy research led by Carl June, MD, a professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of Translational Research in the Abramson Cancer Center, is detailed in a Wall Street Journal column by Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster and founding president of Facebook, in which he calls for his fellow young Internet leaders to use their talents and wealth to transform the world of philanthropy.

In an editorial published in the American Journal of Transplantation in response to two new studies, Deirdre Sawinski, MD and Jonathan Maltzman, MD, PhD, both Assistant Professors of Medicine in the Renal, Electrolyte and Hypertension Division, emphasize that environmental factors can alter the response to organ transplantation. "These studies show that a high fat-diet impacts the immune response and skews it toward rejection and this suggests that avoidance of a high-fat diet in our transplant recipients may have benefits in terms of decreased rejection episodes in addition to known cardiovascular benefit," Maltzman told Reuters Health.

Nearly six million Americans currently live with heart failure, yet a recent national survey found that nearly half of those surveyed got fundamental facts about heart failure wrong, according to Medical Express. The article includes a video of Mariell Jessup, MD, an associate chief of clinical affairs in the Division of Cardiology and medical director of the Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center, educating people about heart failure.

Penn Researchers Receive $2.9 Million in Awards from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund to Launch Biomedical Research Careers

June 17, 2015

Two Penn researchers, Igor Brodsky, PhD, an assistant professor of Pathobiology and Rahul M. Kohli, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of Medicine, will each receive the Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award. This award provides $500,000 over five years to support accomplished investigators at the assistant professor level to study pathogeneises, with a focus on the interplay between human and microbial biology.

Greater HDL cholesterol efflux capacity is linked to a lower incidence of coronary heart disease events. "We were very interested to find that HDL cholesterol efflux capacity measured in healthy persons predicted risk of a future cardiovascular event even after adjusting for the HDL-C level," Daniel J. Rader, MD, who directs the Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine and Lipid Clinic Medicine and chairs the Department of Genetics, told Reuters Health. He is also the lead author of the Lancet Dibetes and Endocrinology study.

Sometimes even cells get tired. When the T cells of your immune system are forced to deal over time with cancer or a chronic infection such as HIV or hepatitis C, they can develop "T cell exhaustion," becoming less effective and losing their ability to attack and destroy the invaders of the body. While the PD-1 protein pathway has long been implicated as a primary player in T cell exhaustion, a major question has been whether PD-1 actually directly causes exhaustion. A new paper from the lab of John Wherry, PhD, a professor of Microbiology and Director of the Institute for Immunology, in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, seems to -- at least partially -- let PD-1 off the hook. The paper was published this week in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Beatrice Hahn, MD, a professor of Medicine and Micriobilogy, commented in an article in Science magazine about work suggesting a gene in some wild chimpanzees infected with the AIDS virus closesly resembled one that protects humans from HIV. "I'm excited about their finding an allele closely related to B57, albeit in preliminary experiments," Hagn says. "It could be protective, and it could be quickly checked by looking at all the other chimp populations that harbor SIVcpz."

For decades, doctors have fussed over patients' HDL, or "good" cholesterol, levels, prescribing medications to boost them if they drop below the rcommended benchmark. Now, a Lancet study from Penn suggests that focus has been misplaced. Instead of sheer amount, what matters more is how well HDL works to remove fats from blood vessels. "HDL is modestly useful as a predictor of rish, but we're moving toward a time when we think measurement of HDL function might, in fact, be a better way, " senior author Daniel Rader, MD, director, Preventative Cardiovascular Medicine and the Chair of the Department of Genetics, told WHYY.

HDL is the “good cholesterol” that helps remove fat from artery walls, reversing the process that leads to heart disease. Yet recent drug trials and genetic studies suggest that simply pushing HDL levels higher doesn’t necessarily reduce the risk of heart disease. Now, a team led by senior author Daniel J. Rader, MD, director of the Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine and Lipid Clinic at Penn Medicine, has shown in a large, forward-looking epidemiological study that a person’s HDL function—the efficiency of HDL molecules at removing cholesterol—may be a better measure of coronary heart disease risk and a better target for heart-protecting drugs. The new study was reported in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

U.S. Senator Pat Toomey delivered a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate to highlight the recent innovations in cancer reserach and the importance of federal funding for these efforts, including gene therapy research led by Carl H. June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of Translational Research in Penn's Abramson Cancer Center.

James Hoxie, MD, director of the Penn Cener for AIDS Research, was quoted in a Scientist article on Timothy Brown, the "Berlin Patient" who was "functionally" cured of HIV. Diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, he received a stem cell transplant from a donor who had the CCR5 mutation in both parents and has remained off drugs since 2008. "Nobody would dare to use the word 'cure' before this happened," Hoxie said. But Brown's cure "has generated an entirely new field of science that we boldly call cure or eradication research."

The immunotherapy drug known as PD-1 bested the stadard of care in advanced melanoma, researchers reported at the 2015 AACR Annual Meeting. Patients on pembrolizumab (PD-1) had better overall survival and progression free survival rates compared to patients on ipilimumab. "Again and again, new immune therapies are producing meaningful outcomes for our patients, "Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, a professor of Medicine in the division of Hematology/Oncology at the Abramson Cancer Center told Forbes. " The breakthrough drug approved four years ago is now seemingly surpassed, with less toxicity."

Cancer researchers and oncologists gathered in Philadelphia last week for the 2015 AACR Annual Meeting, where a lot of focus was on immunotherapy, reports WHYY. The piece featured an abstract from Robert Vonderheide, MD, PhilD, a professor in the division of Hematology/Oncology at the Abramson Cancer Center and David Bajoy, MD, and instructor of Hematology/Oncology, on a new combination of immune drugs for melanoma patients. Out of 24 participants, two patients went into complete remission and four others improved. "These types of extroardinary responses achieved by immuntherapy are actually becoming ordinary," said Vonderheid. "Patients are walking away from their cancer forever."

The American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, expected to draw over 18,000 cancer researchers and physicians from around the world, begins this weekend in Philadelphia, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. "It's a stunning meeting," said Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, professor of Medicine in the division of Hematology/Oncology in the Abramson Cancer Center. "It instigates collaborations. It helps fund our work. It provides a voice for the work we do."

Changing Lives Through Donating Kidneys to Strangers

April 15, 2015

In continuing coverage, a segment from Nightline features Penn patients Michele and Matt Crane, and their kidney transplant surgeons, Peter Abt, MD, associate professor of Surgery, and Ali Naji, MD, PHD, surgical director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program. Last month, Matt and Michele participated in what is now the longest multi-hospital kidney transplant chain in U.S. history. Over the course of three months, 68 lives were changed when 34 kidneys were swapped between 26 different hospitals across the nation. "It is a huge operation, but it's driven by the hears and minds of people who want to do it. If there was no love in this, it wouldn't happen," said Naji.

In continuing coverage, a post from Dr. Francis Collins to his NIH Director's Blog reports on the recent Penn-led study published in JAMA which found that among women with mutations in BRCA1/2 genes, the answer to whether a particular individual will develop breast cancer, ovarian cancer, both types of cancer, or neither cancer appears to vary considerably depending upon the precise type of mutation inherited and the locations of these mutations in the DNA sequences of the genes. The post states that the new work by Timothy Rebbeck, PhD, associate professor of Population Science in the Abramson Cancer Center, Katherine L. Nathanson, MD, associate professor of Medicine and director of Genetics in the Basser Center for BRCA, and collegues represents a significant step toward more precise and individualized risk calculations.

In a Medpage Today "10 Questions" article, Mariell Jessup, MD, associate chief of clinical affairs in the division of Cardiology and medical director of the Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center, shares her thoughts on a variety of topics - from treatment barriers to advice to other physicians.

A Philadelphia In uirer story examines progress in various types of immunotherapiesfor the treatment of cancer. "We have tried to learn from the early days of gene therapy and avoid the hype," said Carl June, MD, a profesor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of Translational Research in Abramson Cancer Center. "What I say in general is, it's the early days, so we don't know everything. We need to have decades of observations. But so far, the toxicity [of immunotherapy] has been less" than conventional oncology weapons.

The University of Pennsylvania research team behind pioneering studies of an investigational personalized cellular therapy for blood cancers has announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued several new patents on technologies related to this therapy, known as CTL019. "We are proud to have successifully treated patients with advanced leukemia and lymphoma and to continue refining this therapy and developing new CARs to treat other types of cancers." said Carl June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in Penn's Perelman School of Medicine, and director of Translational Reserach in the Abramson Cancer Center.

In continuing coverage, WHYY radio reported on a new study from Penn researchers which shows that the type and location of BRCA mutation helps determine whether women are more likely to develop breast or ovarian cancer. "It doesn't mean you won't get breast cancer or you won't get ovarian cancer," said senior author Katherine L. Nathanson, MD, associate professor of Medicine and director of Genetics in the Basser Center for BRCA and chirf oncogenomics physician in the Abramson Cancer Center. "There's just some relative differences depending on where the mutation is." Lead author Timothy Rebbect, PhD, associate professor of Population Sciences in the Abramson Cancer Center, was quoted in outlets across the antion, influding Reuters Health, HealthDay, and NBC News.

A three-part PBS film "Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies," presented by Ken Burns, will feature the story of the first pediatric patient to receive Penn's modified T cell therapy for leukemia. Carl June, MD, a professor in the department of Pathology and Laboratoy Medicine and director of Translational Research in Penn's Abramson Cancer Center, and Stephan Grupp, MD, PhD, a professor of Pediatrics and director of Translational Research in the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, are featured in the film, along with Emily Whitehead and her parents, Tom and Kari Whitehead. Multiple news outlets covered Penn's role in the fil, which ends with an examination of promising Immunotherapies. The film, which is based on the Pullitzer Prize-winning book, "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer." will air on PBS affiliates across the United States from 9-11 pm for three consecutive evenings, beginning tonight. Emily Whitehead's story appears in the film's final night, April 1.

In continuing coverage of Angelia Jolie Pits's decision to publicly discuss preventive measures taken to reduce the risk of cancers associated with BRCA mutations, Narure reports on the state of genetic testing. Thousands of possible mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes elevate a woman's risk of deloping cancer, but it is impossible to say whether many of these mutaions predispose someone to cancer, because researchers have not seen them enough to know their effects with statistical certainty. "As more and more people are tested, and you identify more and more people with a certain variant, it can go from being a variant of unknown significance to a benighn variant, it can gr from being a variant of unknown significance to a benign variant," syas Katherine Nathanson, MD associate professor of Medicine and director of Genetics at the Basser Research Center for BRCA in the Abramson Cancer Center.

The Immunology Graduate Group is #6 again this year in the U.S. News & World Report
rankings of Best Graduate Schools. According to U.S. News, Penn is one
of "the best science schools for immunology/infectious disease." See the
U.S. News & World Report website for a list of programs.

A PBS NewsHour segment traces the story of Penn Medicine's work developing and testing an experimental personalized cellular therapy for cancer, highlighting both promising results in clinical trials for patients with blood cancers and the potential of the therapy in a newly launched trial for patients with brain cancer. Members of the research team including Carl June, MD, David Porter, MD Marcela Maus, MD, PhD, and Donald O'Rourke, MD are quoted in the story, along with a leukemia patient who is in remission after receiving the therapy last year.

Treating metastatic melanoma with a tripple threat - including readiation therapy and two immunotherapies that target the CTLA4 and PD-1 pathways - could elicit an optimal response in more patients, ont that will boost the immune system's attack on the disease, suggests a new study from a multidisciplinary team of reearchers from Penn's Abramson Cancer Center published today in Nature. The study was led by authors Andy J. Minn, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Radiation Onclolgy, Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, the Hanna Wise Professor in Cancer Research, Amit Maity, MD, PhD, professor of Radiation and Oncology, E. John Wherry, PhD, professor of Microbiology and director of the Insitute for Immunology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and Lynn M. Schuchter, MD chief of Hematology/Oncology at Penn's Abramson Cancer Center.

In continuing coverage, a study showing that two of the four known groups of human AIDS viruses (HIV-1 groups O and P) originated in western lowland gorillas, appeared in several outlets. The international research team conducted a comprehensive survey of simian immunodeficiency viral infection in African gorillas. Coauthor Beatrice Hahn, MD, a professor of Medicine and Microbiology, was quoted.

Two of the four known groups of human AIDS viruses (HIV-1 groups O and P) have originated in western lowland gorillas, according to an international team of scientists. They conducted a comprehensive survey of simian immunodeficiency viral infection in African gorillas, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Coauthor Beatrice Hahn, MD, a professor of Medicine and Microbiology, was quoted in several outlets, including the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

A VICE special report on efforts to treat cancer using the power of viruses and other immunotherapeutic approaches profiled Carl June, MD , a professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of the Translational Research in the Abramson Cancer Center, and Stephan Grupp, MD, PhD, a professor of Pediatrics and director of Translational Research in the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Two pediatric patients who participated in the clinical trials of the Penn-developed cellular therapy known as CRL019 were also featured in the show.

Reporting in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, Shruthi Ravimohan, PhD, a research associate in the division of Infectious Diseases, and Gregory P. Bisson, MD, MSCE, an assistant professor in the division of Infectious Diseases and a senior scholar at the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, evaluated over 200 patients in Botswana before and after they began antiretroviral therapy, and found several immune biomarkers that may help better stratify patients, and guide future research and treatments before HIV treatment begins.

Investigators with the National Institutes of Health have discovered the genomic switches of a blood cell key to regulating the human immune system. The findings, published in Nature today, open the door to new research and development in drugs and personalized medicine to help those with autoimmune disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease or rheumatoid arthritis. The lead author, Golnaz Vahedi, Ph.D., will be joining the Perelman School of Medicine in May 2015 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics.

A Fox News segment details progress in Penn's gene therapy trials for blood cancers, including the story of a patient who was one of the first participants in studies to test this new approach, who remains cancer-free more than four years later. One of the trial's leaders, David Porter, MD, a professor of Hematology-Oncology and director of Blood and Marrow Transplantation in the Abramson Cancer Center, is quoted in the story, and in a San Diego Union Tribune article recapping the results of the trials so far.

David Roth, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Personalized Diagnostics and chair of the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, explained to the audience of SiriusXM's "POTUS" radio show that precision medicine helps diagnose individuals more accurately. Doctors are able to pinpoint a particular kind of illness a patient has and treat it more effectively, instead of a process of trial and error.

A Philadelphia Inquirer article asks: Can a modified vegan diet -- heavy of tofu, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and low on saturated and trans fats -- significantly help with heart disease? Daniel Rader, MD director of the Preventative Cardiovascular Program, says that avoiding saturated and trans fats is the most important dietary change one can make to reduce the risk of heart disease.

A Prevention magazine article about improving your "heart age" includes advice from Daniel Rader, MD, director of the Preventative Cardiovascular Program. He says that for someone with a family history of heart disease, in addition to leading a healthy lifestyle, taking a statin can further reduce the risk of a heart attack.

Investigators including, Dmitry Gabrilovich, MD, PhD have demonstrated what is happening at a cellular level that allows for chronic inflammation to cause a variety of cancers; inflammatory conditions are associated with a specific phenotype of myeloid cells called immature granulocytic cells, they report.

Doctors treating patients battling both HIV and tuberculosis (TB) - many of whom live in Africa are faced with the decision when to start those patients on entrepreneurial therapy (ART) while they are being treated with antibiotics for active TB disease. Reporting in a new study published online this week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers under the Botswana-UPenn Partnership, including Shruthl Ravimohan, PhD, a research associate in the division of Infectious Disease, and Gregory P. Bisson, MD, MSCE an Assistant Professor in the division of Infectious Diseases, have identified immune biomarkers in these patients before they begin ART.

University of Pennsylvania and Imperial College London researchers learned in a new study that after ingesting a meal of blood, mosquitoes ramp up production of immune system proteins that help fight off the parasites that blood might contain. "This appears to be a new mechanism by which the mosquito is anticipating a parasite infection," said Michael Povelones, an assistant professor in Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, who coauthored the study. A greater understanding of how mosquitoes naturally fight off infection could offer a strategy for preventing humans from getting infected with those same pathogens.

Cardiovascular scientists at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have studied a pathway in heart development to discover an important set of molecular signals, triggered by cerebral cavernous malformation-linked gene defects that potentially could be targeted to treat the disorder. “We hope that these findings will lead to a better understanding of the origins of CCM, and thus to treatment possibilities,” says Mark L. Kahn, MD, a professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, and senior author of the new study, published in Developmental Cell.

A somatic mutation in the ATRX gene recently demonstrating potential as a molecular marker for aggressive brain tumors could also serve as a biomarker for rare neuroendocrine tumors, according to a new Penn Medicine study in Nature Communications, reports Endocrine Today. “We have identified, for the first time, somatic ATRX mutations in pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas,” said Katherine Nathanson, MD, an associate professor in the division of Translational Medicine and Chief Oncogenomics Physician for the Abramson Cancer Center. The mutation could not only serve as that biomarker for metastatic disease, but also a potential therapeutic drug target in the future

A Philadelphia Business Journal blog post covered a
newly-opened phase I clinical trial using hTERT DNA immunotherapy. The
drug will be tested in adults with breast, lung, or pancreatic cancer at
high risk of relapse after surgery and other cancer treatments. The
ultimate goal is to reduce the risk of relapse in these patients. "The
next great wave of oncology advancements will be treatments which
empower the patient's own immune system to seek and destroy cancer,"
said principal investigator, Robert Vonderheide, MD, PhD, the Hanna Wise Professor in Cancer Research in the Abramson Cancer Center.

A feature in TheNew Yorker on HIV/AIDS referenced a Penn Medicine study published in New England Journal of Medicine in March on HIV gene therapy and CCR5, a rare mutation that provides a natural resistance to the virus. In that study, Carl H. June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of translational research
at the Abramson Cancer Center, and colleagues successfully genetically
engineered the immune cells of 12 HIV positive patients to resist
infection, and decreased the viral loads of some patients taken off
antiretroviral drug therapy entirely.